Guides

How to vet micro-influencers before you hire them

Cameron Blackwood

A handle is not a buy. Vet the public profile before you send the first DM. The goal is a no, fast, so you spend the message on people who can actually deliver.

Most "vetting checklists" tell you to pull audience location, fake-follower scores, and a 3 to 5 percent engagement cutoff. You cannot see location from a public profile. Fake-follower scores live in paid databases. And those percentage cutoffs usually use followers as the denominator. TikTok and Reels show videos to people who do not follow the account. Mixing the two equations makes a shortlist lie.

If you do not have names yet, start with how to find micro influencers.

What you can check for free

From a public TikTok or Instagram profile, plus one username analysis:

  1. Fit. Do they already post the content you want?
  2. Delivery. Do recent videos get watched, relative to follower count?
  3. Engagement quality. Are comments real, or emoji spam?
  4. Activity. Have they posted lately?
  5. Brand safety. Would you put your logo next to the last dozen posts?

That is enough for a gift or a few-hundred-dollar video. If the fee is large, ask them to screen-share Insights after they reply. Do not ask for a media kit in the cold message.

Free includes 5 username analyses a month across both platforms. Use them on names you already shortlisted.

What you cannot see

A public scrape will not give you:

  • Audience country, age, or gender mix
  • A verified "percent fake followers" score
  • Exact Story or reach numbers they have not posted

Paid indexes (see Modash or Heepsy) sell some of that. For a solo founder, skip the database until the public checks pass. If geo is a hard constraint, ask for a screenshot of audience location after they say they are interested.

1. Watch two posts before you open a calculator

Campaign fit is still the first filter. If they never post easy-run vlogs, a high engagement rate on dance trends does not help a 10K shoe.

Open the last few videos. Ask:

  • Is this the style you want (talking-head, UGC-for-ads, tutorial)?
  • Do people in the comments sound like your buyer?
  • Would this video look like an ad next to their usual posts, or like another one of theirs?

If you only need assets for your ads and they may never post to their grid, you are buying production, not reach. UGC vs influencers is that split. Then vet the craft (hooks, lighting, how they talk) more than follower count.

2. Views vs followers

Follower count is a weak denominator. A 40k account with dead comments is a worse buy than a 12k account whose last ten videos all clear tens of thousands of views.

Paste the username into the TikTok or Instagram analyzer. Read average views, then view-to-follow (Instagram equivalent is on the same tools list).

View-to-follow is average views divided by followers. Higher usually means stronger distribution. One viral outlier can inflate it. The analyzer averages recent measurable videos. Pair it with the comment check below so you do not buy empty reach.

3. View-based engagement, then read the comments

TikTok engagement rate and Instagram engagement rate here are (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views. That is a different number from the follower-based percentages most blogs quote. Do not mix them on one sheet.

There is no universal pass/fail. Compare similar creators in the same niche and size band. A view-based rate often looks smaller than a follower-based rate because views can exceed follower count.

Then scroll comments on two recent videos:

  • Keep: questions, tags, "I tried this," specific complaints.
  • Skip: waves of "Nice pic," one-word emoji, or the same phrase pasted under every post.

High likes and empty comments is a skip. High engagement on almost no views is also a skip.

4. Activity

If the last post is months old, do not message them for a date-driven campaign. They may still be a good UGC hire if their old videos look like ads you would run. Say so in the brief.

The analyzer surfaces activity with the other stats. Use it so you do not spend a DM on a dormant account.

5. Brand safety, twelve posts

Scroll the last dozen videos and the bio.

Skip if you see undisclosed competitor deals you would never sit next to, claims you cannot legally repeat, or a tone that fights the product. You do not need a 12-month agency audit for a nano gift. You do need ten minutes of watching.

Paid posts in the US need a clear disclosure. If they never disclose existing #ad posts, assume they will fight yours too. Put the disclosure in the creator brief, not in the first ping.

When to spend a paid database check

After the public checks pass, and only if:

  • The fee is high enough that a bad audience geo would waste it, or
  • You need YouTube or a CRM, not just TikTok and Instagram.

Otherwise stay on the free analyzers and move to outreach. Sanity-check the quote with how much to pay and TikTok CPM (or Instagram) from a realistic view estimate. After the post, measure ROI with a unique link or code, not views alone.

After they pass

Send one specific first message. Then the creator brief: deliverable, usage, ship-to, fee or gift.

If you still need a shortlist, write the discovery brief and run Creator Discovery Agent. Free is one search a month. You still do the vetting and the outreach.